Breaking Free
by xDazee
Summary: Maya Matlin is always meddling into someone's business. When she finds out that Zig Novak is selling and using drugs, she tries her best to stop him. Getting caught up, she runs into Damon and his boys. Damon starts to stir up an evil plan and Maya is in the center of it. FULL SUMMARY INSIDE
1. Chapter 1

_Summary: Maya Matlin is always meddling into someone's business. When she finds out that Zig Novak is selling and using drugs, she tries her best to stop him. Getting caught up, she runs into Damon and his boys. Damon starts to stir up an evil plan and Maya is in the center of it. Blackmailing Zig and getting him to beg on his knees sounds too promising, but when Damon starts to take a liking into little naive Maya, will he keep this going on? Can Zig stop him from harassing Maya or will Damon and his gang prevent Zig from getting in the way?  
_

Disclaimer: I do not own Degrassi. Stephen Stohn does.

Leave me feedback. It'll help me update frequently.

* * *

 **Ch.~ One: Meddling Maya**

First period had ended and people were quickly filling up the hallways. Maya grabbed her books and walked into the halls, looking for her good friends, Tris and Zoë. Spotting the two of them at their locker, Maya skips over towards them.

"Perino is a pain in my ass!" Tris sighs dramatically. "He gave me a F!"

"Armstrong gave me a 0 on today's lesson because I wouldn't work with that jerk, Damon," Zoë scoffs, rolling her eyes.

"You have to be kidding me," Tristan says. "That Damon kid still goes here?"

Damon wasn't a name they heard of too often. Maya and Tristan knows about Damon through Zig. The two of them were friends once upon of time, but Damon took a turn in the wrong field. He started hanging around a bad crowd that caused a lot of ruckus. He left Degrassi for a while, but no one seemed to notice, because he wasn't really known. It wasn't until now that Maya realized that he was back.

"No," Maya speaks up, causing her friends to turn to look at her. "He must have just came back. He was gone for a while."

"Well, whatever, he's a nobody anyway," Tristan responds.

Maya nods her head, drowning out her two friends talking. She has an eery feeling that she cannot seem to shake. Glancing over her shoulder, she sees Damon and Zig talking. Zig looks angry whereas Damon looks unamused. A smirk is on his face as Zig is yelling at him. She watches as Zig jabs Damon's chest before storming off. Telling her friends she'll catch them later, she jogs after her boyfriend to see what's going on.

"Zig!" she calls out.

Zig stops, turning around and staring down at his girlfriend. The irritable look on his face tells her he doesn't want to be bothered, but she ignores the look.

"What happened between you and Damon?" she asks. "I saw you arguing."

"It's none of your business, Maya!" Zig snaps.

"But-"

"Stay out of it."

Zig walks away, leaving Maya to stand in the halls. She ignores the whispers as her cheeks turn red, feeling humiliated. Biting her lip, she knows she won't get answers from Zig, so she has to go to the next source. Looking down at her watch, she has a few minutes until her second hour which is Perino class. Deciding to put her investigation on hold, Maya goes back to her locker to retrieve her books. Afterwards, she runs to Perino class and walks in just as the bell rings.

"Alright class," Perino says just as everyone is settling into class, "I want you to pair up for this assignment. I will be choosing your partners. Grace, I'm pairing you with Winston. Frankie, you will work with Lola. Maya..."

Just then, Damon enters the classroom with a smug look on his face.

"I'm pairing you with Damon."

.`.`.

"So, we have to do a power point presentation on the French Revolution. Any ideas?" Damon asks, looking over at the rubric.

After school, Maya suggested she and Damon stay behind to start off their project. Lying to her boyfriend, and her friends, she told them she had to stay after for tutoring. She couldn't let them -especially Zig- know that she was going to be hanging out with Damon, even if it was just for a project.

"What were you and Zig arguing over?" Maya asks.

Damon looks up, closing his notebook and chuckling dryly.

"Why do you care?" he asks.

"Because..."

"Oh right, you're Novak's little girlfriend," he says in an amusing tone.

Maya rolls her eyes, waiting on Damon to answer. She knows she should leave it alone, but curiosity seems to creep over her. She doesn't know how to leave things alone. She believes in helping everyone, even if that means breaking their trust and snooping around. She wouldn't stop until she had answers.

Damon studies her, narrowing his eyes on her. He feels his lips curl into a smile, thinking of things he can do to her - how he can wreck Novak's life with just her. Ever since Zig has been hanging around Tiny, the younger brother of Vince, he's changed. The boys Damon hangs around hates Vince and Tiny. They're dirty and conniving. Vince killed one of Damon's friends and for that, he will pay. Damon was going to make sure of that. He knows Zig and Tiny were there during the murder, so he'll make them pay, too.

First, he had to break down Zig and now he had the perfect plan. He was going to make little Maya his and turn her against Zig. Zig was going to pay and so was his friends. By breaking Zig down, his guard would be let down, and maybe Damon can sneak and take him out. That would make things even. They took one of his boys, he was going to take one of theirs.

"Ziggy boy doesn't like me," Damon tells her. "He thinks I'm evil...an enemy. My friends doesn't like Zig and Zig friends doesn't like me. You see, Vince, the leader of Zig's pack, killed one of my friends. Zig swears he has nothing to do with it, but he's just as guilty as Vince and Tiny. I called Zig out on it and now he's mad at me."

Maya soaks up everything Damon is telling her, forgetting about the project they were supposed to be working on. Zig has never mentioned this to her.

"Zig would never do something like that," Maya tells him.

"You think you know Ziggy boy, but you don't. Watch out for him; the ones you think are the good guys aren't."

Damon's phone goes off. He grabs it from his pocket, seeing that he received a text. He stands up, slinging his bag over his shoulder. Maya looks up at him curiously. They haven't even begun to brainstorm for their project.

"Where are you going? We haven't even started our project."

"I have some important business to take care of. We'll have to finish this up another time. How about you give me your number," Damon shoves his phone towards Maya. She enters her number and hands Damon his phone back.

Damon walks away, leaving Maya to linger with his words. She gets up from the bench and tosses her book bag over her shoulder. Sighing, she walks down the halls and walks out of the school. As she rounds the corner, she sees Damon talking to a guy who looks as if he's in his twenties. Maya quickly backs away and peers around the corner to see what's going on. She watches as Damon receives a small bag from the guy. Damon hands the guy money and begins talking to him. Damon urges him to come closer as he whispers something in his ear. The guy nods and Damon hands him some extra money. The guy disappears and Damon looks over to see Maya watching him. Gasping Maya turns around, running in the opposite direction.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: Thank you for the reviews and follows! I greatly appreciate it.

To Anon: None of the gang stuff happened with Maya and Zig. She is completely oblivious for now. I hope that clears things up.

Disclaimer: Stephen Stohn owns Degrassi.

* * *

 **Ch.2~ Stirring Up a Plan  
**

The exhilarating rush quickly traveled to his body and made his feelings numb. The only thing he cares about is the way his body is holding him still, preventing him from moving for a second. Then, he jumped up, giggling as the room began spinning. Looking over, he saw Tiny laughing at him, but he couldn't hear him. His laughs was muffled, almost as if they were being drowned underwater. Blinking, Zig saw that Tiny's body didn't look right. Everything was distorted of some sorts.

The front door opened and Zig heard heavy footsteps drag through the floor. The sound made him cringe, but the drug made him laugh.

"Didn't I tell you not to start the party without me?" Zig hears Vince say, but it's very faint.

"Yo, Vince, I'm worried about Zig. He doesn't look too well," Tiny says worriedly.

"Fuck, Zig, how much coke did you snort?"

The room was still spinning, almost as if it was faster than before. Zig felt his body temperature rise and his throat started to suddenly feel parch. Sweat began dripping from his body. It was as if the house was becoming humid and the temperature was too unbearable to stand. Groaning, he felt himself collapse before him, closing his eyes to allow to darkness to engulf him.

`.`.`

 _What is he up to?_ Maya asks herself as she stares at Damon. He hasn't mentioned what happened yesterday, in fact, it's as if he's completely oblivious to the fact that she was there. Sighing, Maya decides to let her mind stop wondering and just focus on their assignment.

"Alright, so the French Revolution began 1789 and ended in the late 1790's," Damon starts off, jotting down what he's saying.

"1799 to be exact," Maya interjects.

"Right, so-"

"Maya," Maya whirls around to see Grace standing behind her. Her facial expression is unreadable, but Maya detects something is wrong. "It's about Zig."

`.`.`

"You've been snorting coke, Zig?" Maya hisses as she punches Zig's arm, causing him to wince.

Instead of taking him to the hospital, Vince called up one of the doctors he knows and had him take a look at Zig. For him not to utter a word to the police, he had to pay the doctor ten grand, but it was worth it. If Zig was going to be under his wing, he had to make sure his boy was safe.

"Maya, stop," he says tiredly.

"I will _not_ stop, Zigmund. I cannot believe you could be so stupid and take drugs! What if you would've died?"

"But I didn't, Maya!" Zig snaps. "I didn't die and honestly, I feel fine; I feel great, even!"

"You don't look like it," she mumbles.

"That's your problem, Maya. You're always sticking your damn nose in somebody's business and try to tell them how they feel or how they look! You want everyone to have this 'Golden Child' image like you do, but we can't! Not everyone was born into a loving family who cares about them and make sure they get whatever they little heart desires! Some of us was born into poor families who hardly could afford _two_ pairs of pants! Some of us mother's stopped wanting us!"

She couldn't help the tears that were streaming out of her eyes. Zig has never lashed out on her like this. Wiping her eyes, she bites her lip and turns away, walking out of the room. She walks passed the living room where Vince and Tiny are sitting.

"Bye Blondie," she hears Vince sneer as she slams the front door behind her.

Just as she walks down the street, she hears someone calling her name. Turning around, she sees Damon running towards her.

Maya knows she shouldn't even give him the time of day. After all, she's just minutes away from Vince's place. Who knows what can happen? Vince or Tiny - or even Zig for that matter - can walk by any second and fine the two of them talking. Damon would probably get killed and it would be her fault if she allowed this to happen.

"Could this day get any worse?" she questions aloud as she turns back around and continues to walk.

Avoiding Damon can keep things from getting any more complicated. Zig was already yelling at her, bringing her to tears. She didn't need Damon to make things worse.

"What's wrong?" he asks as he catches up to her.

"Nothing, I'm fine. Just leave me alone."

"Yes it is. Talk to me."

"Every time I try to help someone out, I get lashed at. I just want what's best for everyone, but that's not enough."

"What happened?" Damon asks.

Sighing, Maya stops in her tracks, turning to face Damon. He and Zig aren't on good terms anymore, so she shouldn't tell him what's going on, but a part of her wants to. Maybe Damon can see that his old friend needs help and he can try to help Zig out.

"He's doing drugs...coke to be exact."

"Novak?" Damon asks as Maya nods her head to confirm it.

"Maybe he's not who I thought he was."

She hated hearing herself say that aloud. This was not the Zig that she had fell head over heels for. The Zig she knew would _never_ yell at her or make her cry the way he did. The Zig she knew would not take drugs or even know where to get drugs from!

"Zig has been changing since he hung out with Vince and Tiny; he's not the same. You see he dropped me as a friend and now, he's selling and using drugs. It's only a matter of time before he starts getting violent and start attacking whoever crosses him."

Maya's eyes widen at this. Zig was not only using drugs, but he sells them too? She knew about Vince being a drug dealer, she even suspected Tiny to be one, but not Zig. Not the Zig who was a big softie and made her heart melt whenever she saw him. Not the Zig that made her heart swell and made all her worries disappear. Whoever this Zig was...this wasn't her Zig.

"Drugs can make you do anything, Maya. Maybe he'll regret it later, or maybe he'll be too high to even comprehend what the hell he just did. The fact of the matter is, you better start leaving your precious boyfriend alone."

"I can't do that," she gasps. "Zig _needs_ me."

"Zig is capable enough to handle himself. He's dangerous, Matlin, and pretty soon you'll find out if you don't leave him alone."

"Why are you telling me this?" Maya questions. "Is it because you hate Zig and you want to see him miserable?"

"No, it's because I don't want to see the girl I'm starting to like get hurt."

Maya's jaw drops as Damon walks off, smirking as he does so. Zig is already crumbling without his doings. All he has to do is get Maya to turn against Zig and come crawling to him. If he can break Zig down, the others will shortly fall down, too. He has to get Maya to see he's the "good guy". Things will fall into his favor pretty soon before he take X out Zig.


End file.
